Certified Professional Innovator Program

Innovation is hard. It is not an amateur sport. It requires extensive training, practice, and discipline: you need to do it a lot to learn it well. You can read about the theory, tools, and framework, but you need to practice repeatedly to really learn how to innovate.

We believe in a See One, Do One, Teach One philosophy to becoming an innovator and this website is the first part of the journey. It will give you a fundamental understanding of what innovation is—and what it is not—and it will teach you proven techniques of brainstorming ideas and launching projects through your organization. This program will start by getting you in the right mindset for innovation and then show you how to lead and manage that innovation. The next step, the Do One step, is to sign-up for one of our Jumpstarts where one of our skillfully trained coaches will assist you in taking on an innovation challenge.

The Certified Professional Innovator Program is designed to develop your skills to lead innovation in your organization. Certified by the University of Michigan, it combines both the theory and practice of innovation by pairing this online course with short-term and long-term action learning follow-ups: a 2-day jumpstart and 90 days of coaching.

The online course consists of 14 standard lessons that cover the fundamentals of innovation. Each lesson is accompanied by a video, a workbook chapter, articles, and other resources. Access and practice with these resources will equip you with a strong foundation from which to build on; there is so much to explore and learn!

This home page contains links to the information you need. From here you can get a quick overview of each lesson. The Course Tips link will show you the best practices and ideas for getting the most out of the program. Key Learning is your home for key concepts you’ll be exploring in each lesson. Innovation Genome shows you program-wide concepts that you can refer back to at any point in your learning. To begin your program you can either click the link to take your assessment below or go to Modules.

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Certified Professional Innovator

This program is designed to develop highly practiced innovation leaders. It will provide the necessary tools and techniques to stimulate and manage innovation.
Leaders will be given frameworks and methods for strategizing, developing, and implementing innovative solutions. The aim of the program is to provide leaders with the perspective and skill base necessary to manage breakthrough
innovation-focused projects, people, and ventures.